On the Electrical Properties of Flame. 89 
eral degrees was obtained. The two cells before mentioned, 
when connected by the floor, caused a deflection of 25°. The 
Wooden floor was thus proved to be an incomparably better con- 
ductor than air heated to 400° C. 
When the strips of platinum were exposed to the direct action 
of the flame of a spirit-lamp, the first notice of the passage of 
electricity was obtained, when they were placed at about three 
inches above its extreme point, and began to show signs of red- 
hess. ‘The deflection increased as the strips were lowered into 
the flame, and attained its maximum at a small distance beneath 
the point of the cone into which the flame shaped itself. When 
the flame was strongest, there was a permanent deflection of 75°. 
In these experiments, care was taken to preserve the strips of 
platinum as nearly as possible at the same temperature. The two 
cells were removed, and the electrity of the flame itself was ex- 
hibited when the two strips were placed, the one above the other, 
Within the flame, with their flat surfaces horizontal, so that they 
ssumed different temperatures. The flame current passed al- 
Ways from the hottest platinum strip through the separating inter- 
Another attempt was made to ascertain the point at which 
heated gas permitted the passage of electricity. In the centre of 
the flame, from a Berzelius’s lam , Is a cone-shaped obscure mass 
of air as yet unburned, but strongly heated by its vicinity to the 
flame; into this two platinum wires connected with the two 
conduction. An approximation to the blue rim of the flame 
Showed an increase of conductive power, and a deflection of 
several degrees was obtained. 
hen in this case one of the wires was caused to approach 
the blue edge of the flame, while the other remained at a dis- 
lance, a deflection of 1° to 2° was obtained after the removal of 
the two cells ; the deflection indicated the passage of a current 
from the hotter to the cooler wire ‘ 
The aperture through which the air passed upwards into the 
i e flame 
the Position ; two isolated platinum wires were introduced through 
pa Popping-cork into the central space, but as long as they were 
pt at 
Cleetricity passed from one to the other. When they were caused 
Vening space of gas. 
Stcoxp Serixs, Vol. XIV, No. 40,—July, 1852. 12 
